Pinterest Challenge: Get Cooking

The Summer Edition of the Pinterest Challenge is back and it just so happened to come the day I challenged myself to start cooking again and make a few of those recipes I'd been pinning for months, nothing like a little deadline to make things happen.

My first challenge was the hardest - red and blue tie-dyed fudge (yes, I pulled out the patriotic dessert for Independence Day last week.) I'd never made fudge before so I was a bit worried about how this would turn out. Turns out I was right to worry, my first batch wasn't the prettiest, but by the second go round I had it down! Thankfully I found friends and family to give most of it away too, this isn't the kind of thing I want sitting around the house.

To counter the sugar rush from the fudge, I whipped up a batch of Crispy Edamame. This recipe was good, which since I ate if for four meals in a row was a good thing, next time I know to half the recipe!

The pin I tested the most, was one to make Greek-style yogurt by straining regular yogurt using the coffee filter method I found on this pin. This is a keeper, I eat yogurt for breakfast every day and prefer the thinker, more protein packed strained version to regular yogurt and using coffee filters to strain the yogurt rather than cheese cloth is easier and less costly.

My favorite of the pins I tried was the Smashed Chickpeas & Avocado Salad Sandwich, I'm pretty sure this one will become a regular at my house. My only complaint was how much work it was to take the skins off the chickpeas, next time I'm going to skip that step. I realized after I started making this that I didn't have a lime, so I made it with lemon juice and I used spinach and a sprinkle of coriander, since I didn't have any fresh cilantro in the fridge.

My final cooking attempt was a pin my sister sent me for Sweet and Salty Chickpeas (can you tell I love chickpeas?) This one made a great, low guilt snack.

Can you tell I'm playing with my new iPhone and assorted camera apps? A week's worth of play has me loving Instagram for the social aspects, but my favorite app for taking photos is Camera Awesome. The filters aren't the best I've seen, but I love the feature that allows me to pick one spot in the photo to set the exposure to and the ease with which I can send the photos to Flickr or to my Instagram Feed.

Have you tried any recipes off of Pinterest lately? What are some of your favorites?

This week's cooking was accompanied by the latest Glen Hansard album, here's the beautiful opening track You Will Become.


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